The latest releases reviewed.
BOCCHERINI: STRING QUINTETS IN G MINOR G318; IN D MINOR G287; IN F G347
Ensemble Explorations
Harmonia Mundi HMC 901894
*****
The music of Boccherini sometimes seems to inhabit a kind of parallel universe, like the ones so beloved of science fiction. Boccherini's world is one in which sensuality of texture and the savouring of the moment (sometimes repeated purely to extend the pleasure) take precedence, and the string quintet with two cellos often seems to hold ascendancy over the string quartet. In the hands of Ensemble Explorations it's a world in which you can dwell with undiluted enjoyment, whether you're enjoying the sound of two cellos at the top of their range, warbling like ecstatic birds, or the way the players get to behave like lovers uttering the sweetest of nothings to each other. In these beautifully gauged performances those sweet nothings can be utterly transfixing. www.uk.hmboutique.com Michael Dervan
IVES: SYMPHONIES
Donnie Ray Albert (baritone), Dallas Symphony Chorus, Dallas SO/Andrew Litton Hyperion
CDA 67540 (Nos 1&4); CDA 76525 (Nos 2&3)
***
The four numbered symphonies of Charles Ives chart a remarkable journey from the Romanticism of Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak to a modernism where the whole of the composer's world, vernacular and academic, sacred and secular, simple and sophisticated, could be freely blended. In a work by the frequently iconoclastic Ives, the conservatism of the First Symphony is nearly as shocking as the questing radicalism of the Fourth. Andrew Litton's warm-hearted Dallas concert recordings are more sensitive to the connections with tradition than the breaches which have made Ives so famous. The First and Fourth Symphonies are coupled with the wonderfully moody Central Park in the Dark, and the Second and Third with General William Booth Enters Into Heaven. www.hyperion-records.co.uk Michael Dervan
THE MUSIC OF IGOR STRAVINSKY VOL 6
Mary Ann Hart (mezzo soprano), Thomas Bogdan (tenor), Gregg Smith Singers, Orchestra of St Luke's, David Wilson-Johnson (narrator), Simon Joly Chorale, Philharmonia Orchestra/ Robert Craft
Naxos 8.557504
*****
With the exception of the Symphony of Psalms, the choral works collected here are not often encountered in concert. The Mass and Cantata have a kind of medieval austerity, haunting when you tune in to it, but audiences have been slow to respond to the tinctured flavouring of these pieces. The short Babel, for narrator, choir and orchestra, has suffered the obscurity that is the fate of most narrated works. The three Russian choruses, recently gaining attention from choral societies, are Orthodox in spirit. The Symphony of Psalms is its unique, unrivalled self, one of the peaks of the choral repertoire. The composer's close associate, Robert Craft, working with groups on either side of the Atlantic, conducts with a deep understanding of how the minutiae of balance and inflection are definitive in the art of Stravinskian interpretation. www.naxos.com Michael Dervan
PHILIPS RECORDINGS 1955-1978
Arthur Grumiaux (violin)
Philips Original Masters 475 7825 (6 CDs)
****
The Belgian violinist Arthur Grumiaux (1921-86) was a performer fortunate enough to record much of his repertoire many times over. What you make of this new collection of some of his rarer recordings will probably depend on where you begin. Beauty of tone notwithstanding, the two discs of Bach and Handel, taped with harpsichordists Robert Veyron-Lacroix and Egida Giordani Sartori in the 1960s, now sound laboured, even stodgy. Concertos by Bach and Vivaldi (including the Four Seasons) are altogether finer. But it's not until he reaches a concerto by Michael Haydn that Grumiaux blossoms into stylish, top form. Elegant civility and a certain emotional reserve were hallmarks of his playing, and the gem-like perfection he conveys in four Schubert sonatas is hardly tarnished by the rather too woolly pianism of Paul Crossley. The major romantic repertoire, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tchaikovsky, plus smaller pieces by Wieniawski and Svendsen, is offered in beautifully shapely accounts from the 1970s. made with Heinz Wallberg, Jan Krenz and Edo de Waart. www.deccaclassics.com Michael Dervan
